House under construction collapses killing two and injuring seven in Conroe, TX

[JohnRBaker]

Not sure if there were any 'engineering failures' but perhaps they could have abandoned the job site quicker when they saw the weather turning bad.

21-year-old among 2 dead in storm-related building collapse in Conroe

https://abc13.com/severe-texas-weat...g-issued-storm-damage-in-montgomery/13290046/

An excerpt from the above item:

Severe storms sprang up Tuesday afternoon, snapping power lines and tree limbs, and causing a deadly building collapse in Conroe.

The collapse happened at a construction site in Conroe's new Ladera Creek community.

Subcontractors were building a two-story home that has now been flattened. Two men were killed and seven were hurt when it came down.

The collapse happened during a storm that steamrolled its way through the area at about 4 p.m. Relatives told Eyewitness News that the workers noticed the weather was turning bad. They started packing up their tools to leave, but the storm hit hard and fast.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[Sym P. le]

A local anecdote, a two story house under construction collapsed and I had to go have a look. It had been framed up, two stories, and the roof with heavy clay tile already installed. It was slab on grade construction and the activity of the day was to pour the slab. The crew removed all the ground floor bracing to make way for the concrete and did the job. Sometime shortly after the work was complete, the house collapsed, seemingly straight down. No one was hurt.

The exterior plywood sheathing blew off and lay on the ground in pristine condition, as it had only been tacked on in a race to accelerate the schedule. Does anyone see the problem?

 

[spsalso]

Along similar lines, for an old house (maybe 1915?) up the street from where I used to live, the lads took off all the exterior sheathing on the outside of the second floor. And forgot to use any diagonal bracing. They had previously stripped the interior walls down to studs.

Yup.

Yes, I did feel sorry for them. Dumb, but they didn't DESERVE it. Just a couple of lads trying to work and get paid.



spsalso